Monday, April 04, 2011

State Sen. Bob Rucho, R-Mecklenburg, took issues with last week's blogpost about the majority running over the minority in the legislature.
Not so, not this year, he says:

Jack:
Your quote is not accurate: "But each side gets a certain amount of time during debates; in Raleigh, the majority gets all the time if it wants it and can pretty much ignore the minority -- and often does."
Every bill or issue has been and will be open for debate and amendments under Senate Republican leadership. At no time on the floor of the Senate have we “called the question” or “asked that the bill lie upon the table “as our democrat colleagues have done frequently in the past. This was a very effective tool to stifle and stop republican debate , yet I do not recall you condemning that behavior when the democrats abused the system. You should recognize and applaud our implementing a transparent and open policy.

I do enjoy reading your OP EDs’and blog and will continue to do so in the future.

Best regards,

Bob.

My response: After 34 years of covering the legislature, one thing I can say with certainty is that the majority gets the time it wants and can ignore the minority. Sen. Rucho's point is Republicans in the Senate this year have not done that. That's good. The new Republican majority gets credit for making openness and transparency a goal for the 2011 legislature, and that would bring many benefits to policymaking in North Carolina. I hope they succeed. Already we see some committees that limit debate

As for condemning Democrats: yes, I've described their actions in the past, in columns and editorials, as ugly, sleazy, observed that some legislative actions following political contributions looked like retail sales, and pointed out how they've treated governors, too, including ignoring Gov. Jim Martin.

Jim: see http://jackbetts.blogspot.com/2009/03/hardball-in-state-senate.html

Part of the text of one from 2009: If you were watching or listening in on the state Senate Tuesday and Wednesday, you'd have seen and heard firsthand why Republicans in that chamber believe they've been dealt a very bad hand by the Democrats. One big problem for Republicans, of course, is that Democrats are in charge, just as they have been for, oh, a century or so. There are 30 Democrats and 20 Republicans, and when one party holds 60 percent of a chamber, they do pretty much as they please.

Thank you for responding to "Jim's" sarcastic comment and proving him to have either a very short memory or poor reading comprehension skills. Or perhaps - just perhaps - he's nothing but a hyper-partisan hack.

Oh, and it looks as if "Jim" needs some education in basic grammar, just as Sen. Rucho does.

"Democrat" - noun; example: "He is a partisan Democrat".

"Democratic" - adjective; example: "He finds it hard to believe that you took issue with the Democratic majority.

Do you really mean to say that Sen Rucho aka "Bobby" has no credibility becuase of what some would call a grammer error?

Rucho has much credibility. He has ran for and won public office, something I doubt you have ever done or will do 'Cat.

'Cat are you one of those folks that ran around town with the "we love Bill Culp" stickers on their Volvos. (Back ground former Meck county official and DemocratIC party member Bill Culp was convicted of corruption and served time in Federal prison- County taxpayers still pay for his healh insurance to this day)

'Cat did you ever go to those fund raisers that were held to raise money for the defence fund for DemocratIC Speaker Jimmy Black.

Sorry about the spelling errors- Not my fault the CO has no spell check on their comment section

Jack, does that yellow streak of liberalism show through your shirt, which is why you wear that sweater?

Jason Lewis correctly called your paper a product of Pravda and possibly the worst paper in America. And that comes from the whole of its parts. ;)

I just wish Senator Rucho had not played politics and told you that your job, as a reporter, was not to elect democrats, but rather to serve the public with facts and not convenient innuendo. How quickly did you call for Jim Black to be tried for his crimes, if at all?

“A nation can survive its fools, and even the ambitious. But it cannot survive treason from within. An enemy at the gates is less formidable, for he is known and carries his banner openly. But the traitor moves amongst those within the gate freely, his sly whispers rustling through all the alleys, heard in the very halls of government itself. For the traitor appears not a traitor; he speaks in accents familiar to his victims, and he wears their face and their arguments, he appeals to the baseness that lies deep in the hearts of all men. He rots the soul of a nation, he works secretly and unknown in the night to undermine the pillars of the city, he infects the body politic so that it can no longer resist. A murderer is less to fear. The traitor is the plague.”

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About This Blog

Jack Betts is an Observer associate editor who has written
about North Carolina since graduating from UNC Chapel Hill in 1968. A former
Pentagon photographer and Washington correspondent for Landmark newspapers,
Betts was Raleigh Bureau Chief for the Greensboro Daily News and editor of
North Carolina Insight magazine before joining the Observer in 1992.